Elise Andaya is a cultural anthropologist specializing in medical anthropology. She conducts fieldwork in Havana, Cuba on shifts in reproduction, gender ideologies, and kinship strategies since the devastating economic and ideological crisis precipitated by the fall of the socialist bloc.

Moving from observations of reproductive health consultations in neighborhood clinics to interviews with women and their families, academics, and medical professionals, she examines the effects of broad political-economic change on familial and reproductive life. She received her doctorate from New York University.